Jack's End of Year Update

 Wow, 2021 sucked huh?

Here's a quick update on where things stand, regards to both my current projects and my health.

- Recovery is going well for the tendonitis in my wrists, but I'm not quite there yet, with some occasional deterioration happening with my left, which is my writing and drawing hand. I've been tentatively getting back into writing and drawing but I'm trying to be careful and not set anything off again, so it's slow going.

- I'm still waiting for the NHS referral for a physiotherapist to come through. In the meantime, I've been trying to secure an appointment at a private clinic, with no such luck as yet.

- While my hands have been getting better, I've since come down with a string of back pains that, while manageable, make it difficult to just lean back and get into the flow of things. I reckon this is due to the back going bust in my old office chair that I use in my day job.

- I'm waiting for a works assessment referral to be done to establish if the problem is indeed the chair, and if so sorting out a recommended replacement. Nobody has got back to me on this as yet, so if there isn't more news when I return to work in Jan then I'm going to ring the doctors and see what they say.

- All in all, I'm not doing too great, but I'm trying to be productive.

As for my projects:

- For those who didn't see, Obscure Comic of the Month is back. This was a series of columns I used to write, taking a look at lesser known comics. I figured this would a nice simple project to get back on my feet, and plan on keeping it going as long as I can.

- The Illustrated Guide to Drinking Beer, is, as mentioned previously, ready to go to print, but with the time I've had while my wrists recovered I've made plans to add a few more pages, so when I'm feeling better I want to put more work into it.

- I had the next instalment of Sea of Spheres partly done when the tendonitis first hit. I want to get back to it as soon as I can, so if things improve as they are, I hope It'll be done soon.

- I decided to turn the Star Wars pitch I wrote earlier this year into a full fledged screenplay. It's about three quarters done, and I want to commission an artist to do a mock poster for it. More news when it's nearly done.

- I've commissioned an artist to work on a short Warhammer 40k comic. I don't want to give too many details away yet to give the artist all the time they need.

All in all, 2021 was a high contender for worst year of my life. Here's hoping 2022 can salvage something.

Stay Safe.

Obscure Comic of the Month - O Sarilho Books 1 and 2

 Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spins-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.

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O Sarilho by Martin Shizasese - 2016 - Present

Contains Spoilers

When you're attending a convention, particularly one dedicated to creators, writers and artists, it often becomes difficult to decide on what to give your attention to. I often joke that I wish I was a millionaire purely so I could go to comic book conventions and just buy everybody's comics. However, as I am not made of money, I have to be discerning.

Shilling your own comics at conventions is difficult. I know, I do it all the time. On the one hand you kind of want to sit there quietly and let the work speak for itself, on the other you want to shout and scream and vie for people's attention.

This is how I ended up with both books of O Sarilho. It's creator leaning forward from their table to entice me with tales of future Romans and alien space gods. I've been in situations before where a creator has given me the big sell, and ultimately the comic they produce turns out to be measures less interesting than the pitch they frantically sold it on.

I'm happy to say, however, that O Sarilho was not one of those situations.

I want to begin by talking about how this comic deals with it's depiction of future Romans. The concept of saying 'what if the Roman empire never fell and they were around in the modern day and/or future' is not an uncommon one, and has been rendered many times in the world of comics over the years. One commonality amongst these stories, however, is the tendency to merely transplant the Roman empire wholesale into the world of the future. Same attitudes, same fashions, same language, same gods.

Anthropologically speaking, this of course makes no sense. If the Romans were still around after 2000 years they almost certainly would have gone through massive social and cultural change, but O Sarilho is probably the first time I've seen this acknowledged in a story of this type. The future Romans of this tale are far different from the ancient empire that was. Time has seen a shift in attitudes, religion has now evolved around emergent technology. The military has changed, as has it's political systems. The state language of Rome? Italian of course, Latin died long ago.

Of course, the comic itself plays coy around it's alt-history. It's open to interpretation as to whether the Mediterranean empire of the story even originates from Ancient Rome, or if it began as a later resurgence. Ultimately, it's origins don't matter, the world being elaborated upon slowly as we begin to see this world though it's character's eyes.

But what of the story itself? Well, the plot begins with a group of fresh faced recruits of various different backgrounds, eager but nervous about their final days of academia leading up to the careers of their adulthood. From the loose and somewhat exaggerated art style to the subject matter of secret crushes and youthful anxiety, this leads the reader to presume the story will be a light-hearted 'young people at fantasy academy' type story full of interpersonal conflict and low stakes drama.

Then the characters begin dying in droves, limbs are amputated, minds possessed by unknowable alien intelligences and those who walk out alive suffer from heaping piles of trauma.

If you want to get me on board with a story then I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for a bait and switch like this. Lull the reader into thinking this is going to be a relatively light hearted tale and then go right for the brutal violence, and O Sarilho executes this with aplomb. It also keeps the readers on their toes. You think you know which way this story is going, until you don't.

Once we are over the threshold, the plot unfolds into a network of much bigger ideas. For the surviving characters, a new and difficult network within the halls of power must be navigated, an uprising on the fringes of the empire begins to gain momentum and the mystery behind the corpse of what seems to be an alien space god has yet to be unravelled. The story can go anywhere at this point, and its an exiting feeling to know that anything could happen. It's unpredictability is it's greatest strength.

O Sarilho is ongoing and updated regularly at it's main site, though if you know me I like to read my comics in big chunks in print form. So I'll certainly be picking up further volumes as they become available. Either way, whatever means you prefer to consume your comics, I highly recommend you check it out. Everything you need to know you can find out here.

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Jack Harvey 2021. O Sarilho (c) Shizamura. Images used under Fair Use.